QUESTION OF THE WEEK- What plane crash do you most remember?

Bryan Hagen: "This was back in Minneapolis, and I would guess it's in the mid-'50s. Part of the metropolitan airport there had a National Guard, so they had these jets. Those were fairly new at that time. It was a jet that came and took out three houses. You still go back there today, and you still can see that there are three different houses from a different era because they had to replace them."

Kevin Poindexter: "The 9/11 crashes definitely stand out the most to me."

Kerri Bearsuder: "The one recently where the girl survivor was 14 years old. I can't remember where it crashed."

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3 comments

John Giuliano October 10th, 2009 | 7:35pm

The planes that crashed on 9/11 were remote-controlled by the shadow government!

ken jamme October 12th, 2009 | 9:22pm

Crash of a turkish airlines DC-10 in the 70,s. Due to a design flaw, the aft cargo door latch handle could be moved to the closed position and the door close indicators in the cockpit and on the door would indicate closed but in fact the latch was not engaged. So as the aircraft ascended, the pressure inside would eventually exceed the pressure outside and the door would pop open. This would not be a major problem on most aircraft, the DC-10 however had two more design flaws. First, the tail section control cables travelled under the cabin floor (no fly by wire in those days). Second, the cabin floor was not vented to the cargo bay below. So when the door fell off and the air rushed out to equalize, the cabin floor collapsed on the control cables to the tail section rendering the aircraft unflyable. The problem had reared it's head in two other near catastrophies but the crews were able to land safely. Why was nothing done to ground the aircraft and fix it? Well, like the recent Airbus flight data problem that is suspected in the air france crash in the atlantic this year, these things will interrupt production schedules, flight schedules, profits, etc. The DC-10 was in hot competition with the Boeing 747 and the Lockheed L1011 .Airbus today is in hot competition with Boeing. History, those who ignore it are destined to repeat it. PS, Hi Mackie.

JSGeare October 14th, 2009 | 12:21pm

1964 crash of a B52 in a snowstorm, not far from my home in Western Maryland. It was carrying 2 hydrogen bombs. A week or so later, here came a huge tractor pulling a flat bed trailer -and there were the bombs, being hauled away.

Although the plane finally came down near Salisbury, PA, there were pieces of it scattered for many miles around, which were not discovered until years later. And one day, a co worker brought back a scrap of metal to the forestry station where I worked. We set it against a tree and shot it with 0-30's. Not a scratch, not a dent. But the piece of metal itself looked like a torn fragment of tin foil.

That sure was some storm, in the winter of 1964, over the mountains of western Maryland and Somerset County PA. And about 40 years later, another big plane came down in that same county, just 20 miles north. The victim of an altogether different kind of storm.